Abstract:

The presentation would be led by an inter-institutional team, two professors of journalism and media classes, who linked their classrooms in internationally collaborative learning projects in the Fall 2014 semester. About 40 students from media-related classes in two universities, Mount Mary University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, and Rafik Hariri University in Mechref, Lebanon, participated in collaborative online learning projects that aimed to increase their intercultural competencies. The asynchronous projects used social media and blogging sites to consider issues of cultural stereotypes, media framing, and news narratives affect perceptions. It is designed for an audience of other professors interested in using social media, blogging and online discussions to cultivate intercultural competence. The delivery format will be demonstrations by each of the instructors, showing media projects and relating how these projects and innovative uses of technology enhanced the learning outcomes of the respective courses.

Each teacher would address different pedagogical issues and topics:
1) how to develop international collaborative learning projects tailored for the needs of different cultural settings,
2) using multiple platforms in inter-institutional collaborations, and
3) ways to meet the needs of two different but complementary classes through collaborative projects.

Keywords:

Intercultural competencies, innovation, communication technology, internationally collaborative projects, asynchronous, online learning, social media, multiple platforms.